I got my first custom order from a friend and he asked for a classical guitar. It was my first classical guitar build. He gave me a free choice to pick whatever combination of woods I thought would be best.
I went with my favourite wood to work with- Monkeypod back and sides, paired with a nice Cedar top. Probably a combination of the first of its kind.
I like Monkeypod for it being easy to work with, they look great and most importantly sound great too. The back and sides I used were sanded down to 3.2mm thick. Back braces are Laminated Agathis and Malaysian Blackwood, lightened out by drilling 12mm holes into them.
I added an arm bevel for added comfort for the player, and also to give the guitar a different, out of the norm appearance. The pictures below speak for themselves:
And there you go, my first classical guitar build. I have to honestly say I was pleasantly surprised by its sound. Amazing projection, far beyond what I had anticipated and a very sweet tone. Packed it up in a nice Gator hardcase and sent it off to its happy new owner!
Finally, the last of the six guitars we’ve built are strung up. Going to work on some fine tuning and setting up over the next few days, but we can take it easy now for sure!
It just occurred to me that all the guitars we built these year are pretty exotic, so enjoy these pictures!:
This model is built with Golden Lacewood all round (Top, Sides and Back). Other specs are pretty much standard: 7-piece Nyatoh neck, Malaysian Blackwood fretboard and bridge, Schertler machine heads, bone nut and saddles, and brass pins.
My personal favourite, and I’m still not sure what wood is this, and the guy who sold it doesn’t either, but the looks and sounds are killer. Made all round with the same woods as well, but sprayed on a light sunburst, the Jeffrey Yong JJ Autumn Rose:
The past three weeks have been pretty tense, finalizing the guitars to be brought over to Shanghai in exactly a week’s time of writing this. Sanding down the bodies, fitting and shaping the necks, fretboards, fretting and setting up the guitars.
We finally see some of the end product today, stringing up three of six guitars. Still needs a little bit of work fine tuning the playability and instrument setup, but the bulk of work is over. Enjoy these pictures:
Both having a 1000 year old Redwood tops, abalone purflings and rosettes, one having the mosaic patterns made out of maple pieces and the other Malaysian Blackwood pieces. Both supported by Golden Lancewood pieces under it. Fretboards and bridges are Malaysian Blackwood, Schertler machine heads, Jescar Gold Frets, Solid Brass String Pins, Bone Nut and saddles.
These were quite the challenge to make, just the backs taking up to two weeks just to put together. Worth every bit of effort, now looking at the end product.
One of my personal favourites, both in looks and tone: the Universe-III, an original design by Jeff. The mixed top and backs are Monkeypod and Mango woods. Sides, rosette and headstock are Monkeypod. The purflings are Herringbone, with Malaysian Blackwood fretboard and bridge.
The one you see here is a customized model for Shun Ng, hence the multi-scale fretboard (25.5″-26.5″) and the Glow In The Dark inlay.
This model also sports a Zero fret, giving a more consistent feel and sound throughout the entire neck of the guitar while playing. Gotoh 510s were used on this piece.
So this post is an attempt for me to reach out to my readers, and also for my readers to know me and put a personality behind these words and images.
Yours truly chopping up a durian tree for guitar making as an experiment
I’m writing this on a Saturday night after a long day in the workshop, making use of any spare time I have. I’m a restless person who always has to be doing something, and this applies to my craft as well. I need to be pushing my own limits, learning a new skill, make something work more efficiently.
Perhaps the most common question I’m asked. I did not grow up wanting or aspiring to be one, it really just came to me naturally. I’ve always had an obsession of making my own things since I was young, (not just limited to guitars of course) from scratch if possible. I graduated from college in 2009, and took up a guitar building course from Master Luthier Jeffrey Yong. I built my first Monkeypod OM guitar in a little over two weeks. I was offered a job there after and stayed on for about a year before moving on to other things. I briefly met Jeff again mid 2018, decided to pay him a visit at his new workshop. I found my passion again and proceeded then on to be his apprentice.
How has your career choices led you to where you are?
As mentioned before I’ve worked for Jeff back in 2009. I left thereafter to try other things, perhaps as a curious fresh graduate. I joined Converse (shoes) as a visual merchandiser, of which a small 3 man team of us had to take care of the shop displays nationwide. I stayed on for 3 years before a brief stint as a designer in a marketing company, which did not quite work out as I hated my time being locked down. I left to join an NGO, Malaysian Care as a social worker for a couple of years, working in the prison ministry dealing with juvenile delinquents and recovering drug addicts. I then left to be a freelance photographer, a serious hobby I had turned career, for a good 3 years. I photographed Cars, Food, Corporate Profiles, Portraits and Hotels. While working these jobs, I co-owned a music shop with two other friends, where I’d spend most of my nights- The Acoustic Shack where I sold, repaired, taught, serviced guitars and other instruments. I sold the shop off in early 2018. I then joined Jeffrey Yong again mid 2018.
Did you have any professional or formal training as a Luthier?
Everything I know as a Luthier,I learned from Jeffrey Yong and my own experiences. Everything I know as a tech, I learned from Timothy Chan, and all those years we had troubleshooting guitar problems in The Acoustic Shack. Jeffrey is a self-taught and highly accomplished luthier, one of his greatest achievements being able to bag 1st and 3rd Prizes in a Blind Test Competition at the Guild of American Luthiers Convention, among the likes of Somogyi, Kinnard and Ryan. There’s a whole list of achievements he has which I can’t cover here. Timothy is a telecommunications engineer by profession, a sound engineer and bassist as a hobbyist. We’ve bounced ideas, theories and methods back and forth throughout the 5 years in The Acoustic Shack. We have had many local artists and musicians sending their instruments to us to have them setup and repaired.
What other things do you do when you are not building guitars?
I have a wide range of interests, if I’m not making guitars I’ll still be making other stuff with wood, scrap woods. I’ve built my own snare drums, my own drawers, coffee and tea accessories. I also have a major interest in cooking, an art I believe we can learn many things from- patience, accuracy, looking for excellence in presentation, cleanliness, discipline in making sure your clients get what they are paying for. I dabble into coffee brewing too, and in my free time, I bike a little, draw and paint a little, and occasionally still take out my cameras (a hobby turned profession I buried some time ago).
In case you are wondering what happened to OM-I, that would have been the first guitar I built in the first quarter of 2009 while taking a course with Jeffrey. That’s a story for another day.
OM-II came about after I got back from Shanghai in 2018 last year, I decided to challenge myself to build a guitar out of reject/discarded/scrap materials, both as a learning experience as well as making every last bit of wood count.
I found a discarded Cedar top in the workshop, cleaned up and salvaged it, small pieces of wood from the scrap pile, lower grade monkeypod back and sides and began piecing them together.
I braced and voice the top with the techniques I learned from Jeff, and I’m pleased to say it was a pleasant outcome. Excellent balanced tone and sustain, sounding big for something small-ish of an OM size. The final product:
So here we have a Jonathan Woo OM Acoustic Guitar built. Cedar Top with a custom Monkeypod/Mango rosette, Monkeypod back and sides, a 7 piece Neck with dual truss rod. Malaysian Blackwood fretboard with Brass frets. I later (not pictured) put in an LR Baggs M-1 for stage use.
While not entirely free from mistakes, it’s a great learning curve and a very pleasant guitar to play. My requirement of myself is simple- with every new guitar I build, it has to be better than the previous one.
Jonathan Woo Guitars 